Rooks and pawns at war

The 33rd Bosna Sarajevo is set up perfectly for the ninth and last round with Ivan Sokolov holding a half point lead and needing to draw with black against second placed Rustam Kasimdzhanov to win the tournament in his home town.

Sokolov has 6/8, Kasimdzhanov 5.5 and the eighth round results saw the end of top seed Alexey Shirov's hopes of first place despite his win in a fascinating rook and pawn endgame against the sixteen year old prodigy Teimour Radjabov.

There has been much interest of late in rook and pawn endgames with an equal number of pawns on one wing and one player having an extra passed pawn on the other wing. In general if the superior side's rook is behind the passed pawn the position is winning and if it is in front of the pawn inhibiting its advance and the defending rook is behind the pawn its usually a draw.

Attention was drawn to this type of endgame when Vishy Anand blundered away a draw against Peter Leko at Linares. In general if the superior side's rook is in front of the pawn he has to bring his king towards it and give up pawns on the other wing. Once the king is with its passed pawn the defending side will usually have to give up the rook but can often advance the extra pawns on the other wing and draw if he can activate his own king.

In this endgame Shirov cleverly uses his rook on b3 to inhibit the white king and is aided by its poor starting position on h1. Perhaps Radjabov should have played 37.Kg1 Rb3 38.Rc7 and pawn to h4 threatening pawn h5 when the black king's march to the queenside would have been delayed and his king would have been more mobile. Also 40.Rb7+ was dubious, 40.Kg1 leaving the black king cut off on g7 and intending 40...Rb2 41,Kh2 was a better chance.

T Radjabov - A Shirov

Bosna Sarajevo (8)

Slav Defence

1 d4

d5

2 c4

c6

3 Nc3

Nf6

4 e3

e6

5 Nf3

Nbd7

6 Bd3

dxc4

7 Bxc4

b5

8 Bd3

Bb7

9 e4

b4

10 Na4

c5

11 e5

Nd5

12 Nxc5

Nxc5

13 dxc5

Bxc5

14 0-0

h6

15 Nd2

0-0

16 Ne4

Bd4

17 Nd6

Bc6

18 Bh7+

Kxh7

19 Qxd4

f6!

20 Bd2

fxe5

21 Qe4+

Kg8

22 Qxe5

Qd7

23 Rfe1

Rad8

24 Nc4

Nb6

25 Nxb6

Qxd2!

26 Qxe6+

Kh8

27 Qxc6

Qxf2+

28 Kh1

axb6

29 b3

Rd2

30 Re8

Rxa2

31 Rc1

Re2

32 Rxf8+

Qxf8

33 Qxb6

Qf4

34 Qd8+

Kh7

35 Qd3+

Qe4

36 Qxe4+

Rxe4

37 h3

Re3

38 Rc6

Rxb3

39 Rb6

g5!

40 Rb7+

Kg6

41 Rb6+

Kg7

42 Rb7+

Kf6

43 Rb6+

Ke5

44 Rxh6

Rd3

45 Rb6

b3

46 Rb4

Kd5

47 Kg1

Kc5

48 Rb8

Kc4

49 Kf2

Kc3

50 Ke2

Rd2+

51 Kf3

Rd4

0-1

Shirov

Radjabov

Final position after 51...Rd4 intending 52...Rb4 forcing the pawn home. White is nowhere near making a passed pawn on the kingside.